2009 US Open Venue
Bethpage State Park, Black Course (Farmingdale, New York)
Bethpage State Park hosted the 2002 US Open golf tournament, which went
down in the history books as a highly successful and challenging event.
Tiger Woods won the US Open in 2002 at Bethpage State Park, and was the only golfer in that tournament to post a sub-par score.
In 2009 the event returns to the Black Course at Bethpage State Park. It, like Torrey Pines - 2008 US Open venue - is municipally-owned and together with Torrey Pines is one of only two municipal golf facilities used on the PGA Championship Tour.
Bethpage is widely regarded as being the world's biggest public golf facility, and features no less than five courses all converging on the main clubhouse. The five courses at this 2009 US Open venue are:
- Black course
- Blue course
- Red course
- Green course
- Yellow course
These courses are in descending order of difficulty, with the Black course being the most challenging and the yellow course being aimed at casual or amateur golfers. The Black course is thus the one which will be used for the 2009 US Open golf championship.
More about Bethpage State Park, US Open venue for 2009
The Bethpage State Park golf complex lies in the vicinity of the villages of Bethpage and Old Bethpage, while the clubhouse and administrative section of the complex are part of the Farmingdale postal district. The park was named 'Bethpage State Park' by Robert Moses after his ancestor Thomas Powell bought the 15 square mile piece of land from tribal Native Americans in 1695.
The Golf Digest magazine has rated the Black course at Bethpage State Park as follows:
- 26th greatest golf course in America.
- 6th best golf course in the state of New York
- 6th toughest golf course in America
- 5th best public golf course in America
These commendable ratings make Bethpage State Park Black Course a very worthy 2009 US Open venue.
